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03/26/2024
Save Stories
Mapping
Celebrating Heroic Actions: RapidDeploy Honors Derrik Gregg with Superstar Award

Last year, RapidDeploy was thrilled to introduce the RapidDeploy Superstar Award, a national award recognizing extraordinary individuals who have significantly impacted lives by leveraging Next Generation 911 technology.

This award specifically honors heroes from ECCs and PSAPs nationwide that have effectively utilized RapidDeploy’s technology in a life-saving emergency incident.

Communications Supervisor Derrik Gregg from Scottsdale Police Department Receives the Superstar Award for His Life-Saving Efforts  

On Friday, September 1, 2023, at approximately 0238 hours, Communications Supervisor Derrik Gregg received a 911 call that disconnected shortly after he answered. Derrik was able to see on RapidDeploy’s Radius Map that the caller was on Hayden near McCormick Parkway, and he was also able to see subsequent location changes. Derrik initiated a Call For Service for a 911 welfare check. At the same time, Derrik selected “request additional information,” a feature request on RapidDeploy that signifies that the 911 center feels there is a potential emergency, and will send the requestor any emergency information previously entered into a smartphone by the caller (name, emergency contact, and home address).

On Derrik’s second call to the phone, a female answered and quickly stated that she would call him back. Derrik asked her if she had an emergency, to which she replied,“Yes” and then hung up the phone. Using the information on the supplemental information from the caller’s phone, Derrik ran a query through ACJIS to find vehicles registered to a person with the caller’s name. At this time, Officer A and Trainee Officer B made a stop on a vehicle traveling northbound on Hayden by matching the license plate that Derrik had relayed.

Officers A and B, with other officers and the sergeant backing them up, approached the vehicle and determined that the female passenger of the vehicle needed medical attention. Investigation revealed that the male driver had run over the female passenger prior to leaving with her in the vehicle from a bar in Scottsdale. The female had been unable to speak freely because she was afraid of the driver.

This call came to a successful ending due to the quick actions by Communications Supervisor Derrik Gregg.

It is likely that the actions taken by Scottsdale Communications and Patrol saved this young woman’s life that night.

The Power of RapidDeploy Technology Plays a Pivotal Role in Life-Saving Response

Derrik's actions epitomize the dedication and resilience of our first responders. He exemplified extraordinary life-saving impact with his quick thinking and decisive actions, and his heroic efforts not only saved a life but also showcased the power of innovative technology in emergency situations. His mastery of our technology played a pivotal role in this life-saving operation. We commend Derrik Gregg for his unwavering commitment to public safety and his extraordinary contribution to his community, and we proudly announce Derrik Gregg as the recipient of RapidDeploy's quarterly Superstar Award.

RapidDeploy National Superstar Award

The RapidDeploy Superstar Award recognizes exceptional bravery and outstanding contributions to emergency response. Through real-life examples like Derrik Gregg's, we highlight the impact of innovative technology in saving lives. We encourage nominations and submissions of heroic stories from first responders across the nation, showcasing the remarkable efforts of those on the front lines.

As we celebrate Derrik Gregg's achievements, we also reflect on the broader mission of RapidDeploy. Founded in 2016, we are dedicated to revolutionizing the public safety sector. Our cloud-native platform delivers intelligent information throughout the emergency response journey, empowering agencies and first responders to drive better outcomes in mission-critical situations.

The recognition of RapidDeploy as a Most Innovative Company in 2024 by Fast Company further validates our commitment to excellence. We are proud to lead the charge in reshaping emergency response, reducing response times, and ultimately saving lives. With a curated partner network and a relentless focus on innovation, we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in public safety.

Innovative Technology Is Changing 911

At RapidDeploy, we believe in the power of technology to make a difference. Derrik Gregg's story is a testament to that belief. His swift action, supported by our innovative solutions, demonstrates the impact of collaboration between technology and human ingenuity. As we celebrate Derrik's heroism, we renew our dedication to advancing public safety and driving positive change in communities worldwide.

Together, we will continue to innovate, inspire, and save lives.

03/19/2024
Trends
RapidDeploy Recognized as a 2024 Most Innovative Company by Fast Company!

We’re thrilled to announce that RapidDeploy has been named as a Most Innovative Company on Fast Company's 2024 list, winning in the “rapid response” category for 2024! This recognition celebrates our commitment to revolutionizing the public safety sector with innovative solutions that are reshaping emergency response, reducing response times and honoring our mission of saving lives by reducing response times.

Shining a Spotlight on Innovative Technology in Public Safety

Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies list is a significant honor that recognizes companies that are setting new standards with an innovation-driven focus. This recognition highlights our dedication to pushing boundaries, driving better outcomes in mission-critical situations,  reshaping the public safety landscape and improving the safety of communities worldwide.

RapidDeploy achieved significant milestones in the past year by delivering on the promise of Next Generation 911 (NG911). In 2023 we launched Lightning, the groundbreaking mobile app designed to deliver critical 911 data directly to field responders' smartphones and tablets.  

RapidDeploy's collaboration with the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council to roll out the Lightning mobile app to 25,000 first responders marked a milestone in advancing NG911 solutions statewide. By leveraging cloud-native mapping, analytics and mobile technology, RapidDeploy is leading the public safety industry by providing enhanced situational awareness data to first responders in the field.  

Our Mission and Celebrating Our Team and Partners’ Commitment to Innovation

At RapidDeploy, we recognize that our team is the cornerstone of innovation and our mission to save lives, and our achievements wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of our entire team. We continue to challenge the status quo by advancing public safety technology that provides the promise of NG911 data, workflows and ongoing collaboration advancements that save lives.  

RapidDeploy is on a journey to provide NG911 solutions that support the unified emergency response workflow. By doing so, NG911 will further extend into the field and the overall benefits of enhanced situational awareness will be realized by all first responders in the field.  

This achievement wouldn't have been possible without the dedication and creativity of our incredible team and the unwavering support of our clients and partners. We're immensely proud of the collaborative efforts that have led us to this momentous recognition.

Meet the Most Interesting Man in the World Saving Lives

At the heart of our innovation and mission-driven focus is our CEO & co-founder, Steve Raucher, who was recently featured on the Electrifying Growth podcast hosted by Edison Partners. Here he shared insights into RapidDeploy's journey, leadership ethos and core principles driving our ascent in the govtech space. Listen to the episode, "One of the Most Interesting Men in the World: Saving Lives and Making Money with Steve Raucher of RapidDeploy," to learn more about our mission-driven approach to innovation, and why this led to our recognition by Fast Company as a Most Innovative Company in 2024.

At RapidDeploy, we're not just reimagining emergency response—we're defining the future of public safety. Thank you to Fast Company for this incredible honor, and here's to continued innovation and impact in the years to come! To learn more about our recognition and the innovative solutions driving our mission, check out our press release here.

03/07/2024
Mapping
Trends
Introducing the Future of Emergency Response: RapidDeploy's Critical Incident Board

In the realm of emergency response, every second counts. That's why at RapidDeploy, we're constantly innovating to provide cutting-edge solutions that empower Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs) and responders to act swiftly and decisively in critical situations. Our latest innovation, the Critical Incident Board (CIB), represents a leap forward in situational awareness and response coordination for call takers and field responders. The Critical Incident Board is a valuable tool that empowers telecommunicators and ECC Supervisors using Radius Mapping, as well as field responders with visibility through our Lightning mobile app, with a visual representation of incidents, facilitating quicker responses, efficient resource allocation, and improved coordination among response teams during critical situations.  

What is the Critical Incident Board?

The Critical Incident Board (CIB) is a revolutionary feature built within the Radius platform (coming soon to Lightning in 2024), designed to offer ECCs unparalleled visibility and control during emergencies. With the CIB, authorized users can create, manage and view digital dashboards that aggregate and present live feeds from CCTV cameras and RapidVideo sessions based on defined locations or incident areas. Essentially, the CIB acts as a centralized hub for visualizing multiple media sources in real-time, providing a comprehensive overview of ongoing incidents, emergencies, or planned events.

Prior to developing our Critical Incident Board, we saw a few areas in the market that needed a better solution. Critical Incident Board is a powerful tool in responsive emergency situations, such as a high-stress robbery, where ECCs need the ability to quickly see live camera feeds all in one place to track a suspect’s location in proximity to the crime. Or in a school safety situation where a panic signal is triggered at a school and the ECC needs to monitor the surrounding area. With CIB, ECC supervisors can quickly create a CIB to monitor CCTV camera feeds and RapidVideo sessions, enabling swift response.

Another scenario where a CIB is useful is during a planned response situation, like a large event at a stadium. In this situation we foresee the need for ECCs to proactively monitor activity in and around the venue, ensuring preparedness and rapid response to potential incidents.      

Key Features of the Critical Incident Board:

  • Creation and Management: Users with specific permissions can easily create, edit and close CIBs. Essential details such as name, location, and geofence distance are required for setup.
  • Visual Representation: CIBs are displayed on the Radius map as target icons in distinct colors, allowing for easy identification and access.
  • Real-time Media Streaming: The CIB automatically pulls CCTV camera feeds and RapidVideo sessions within the configured geofence area, offering immediate visual insights.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Users can conveniently view, edit and copy relevant location information directly from the CIB interface, facilitating seamless dispatching and external communication.
  • Flexible Configuration: Integration with Skyline CCTV camera layers enables hassle-free setup for CIB functionality.

 

How Does It Work?

The Critical Incident Board revolutionizes emergency response in several ways:

  • Centralized Visual Information: By condensing various media streams into a unified display, the CIB provides ECCs with a comprehensive view of ongoing incidents, aiding in response planning and decision-making.
  • Real-time Insights: With live media streams automatically aggregated and displayed, the CIB offers immediate insights into unfolding situations, enabling rapid responses.
  • Efficient Coordination: Organizing media streams based on proximity to the central incident allows responders to prioritize actions effectively, enhancing coordination efforts.
  • Enhanced Monitoring Capabilities: ECC staff can continuously monitor incidents through the visual representation provided by the CIB, ensuring targeted response efforts.
  • Ease of Access and Information Sharing: Relevant location information can be easily accessed and shared directly from the CIB interface, streamlining communication and navigation.

 

Critical Incident Boards Empowers Unprecedented Situational Awareness

RapidDeploy’s CIB offering is the latest innovation enabling unprecedented situational awareness and response capabilities. At RapidDeploy, our mission is to revolutionize emergency response through innovation and technology, which is why we're committed to empowering ECCs with the tools they need to do their job more efficiently. With the Critical Incident Board, we're one step closer to realizing that vision, empowering ECCs and responders to save lives and protect communities more effectively than ever before.

03/06/2024
Mapping
RapidDeploy Enables Emergency Response to School Shooting Threats in Carter County, Tennessee

Nestled at the edge of the Appalachian Mountains, Carter County, Tennessee, boasts a population of over 50,000 residents. Responsible for managing emergency calls from the local area, the Carter County Emergency Communications District 911 (TN) plays a pivotal role in ensuring public safety. In July 2023, the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board allocated funds to integrate Radius Mapping into Carter County 911’s infrastructure.

Radius Mapping provides telecommunicators in Carter County with indispensable support and functionality previously unavailable to them. The platform's rapid, precise location tracking features empower dispatchers to visualize a caller’s position on a map of the local area in real-time. Accurate location data is paramount for deploying emergency response resources, particularly in scenarios where callers fail to provide precise addresses or when threats span multiple jurisdictions.

RapidDeploy Offers Crucial Call-Mapping Functionality

The real test of this technology came in February 2024 when telecommunicators utilized it to pinpoint a series of brief 911 calls, one of which included a shooting threat directed at a local school. Just months after the installation of Radius Mapping, the platform proved its worth in a critical emergency communications event. On February 1, 2024, telecommunicators received a call from a 911-only phone—a device that typically cannot receive calls, even from emergency officials. The caller reported a threat of violence but disconnected abruptly, providing an address outside Carter County 911’s jurisdiction. Radius mapped the call to cell towers near the county border, initiating collaboration with neighboring jurisdictions.

Location Tracking Facilitates Fast, Accurate Emergency Response

Approximately 25 minutes later, another call from the same device hinted at a shooting threat directed at the local school system. With Radius Mapping, telecommunicators swiftly identified the caller’s location at Happy Valley High School. Immediate action followed the precise identification of the caller’s location. School resource officers and patrol officers from adjacent jurisdictions were promptly notified, leading to a comprehensive lockdown and search across multiple schools in the vicinity.

Through the utilization of 911 call recordings and Radius Mapping data, authorities swiftly apprehended three juveniles, each charged with threatening mass violence on school property and false reporting.

The case of Carter County exemplifies how innovative technology like RapidDeploy’s Radius Mapping can revolutionize emergency response, ensuring swift, targeted action in critical situations. By harnessing the power of technology, communities can bolster their resilience and protect lives in the face of adversity.

02/29/2024
Partners
Mapping
The Power of Mass Notification, Incident Management, and PSAP Connectivity

Consolidating Emergency Response Tools

When an emergency strikes, communication is key. Being able to reach the right people with the right information as quickly as possible can help deliver an effective and efficient response. While many organizations have multiple tools to address specific components of an emergency, this can often lead to unforeseen issues. The more tools an organization has, the more time-consuming it can be to activate each component, slowing down the response process. It also creates additional steps, making it more likely that a step gets missed, which could have critical consequences if someone doesn’t receive information that impacts their safety.

 

Mass notification systems can offer organizations a solution though. With a wide range of technology integrations and incident management capabilities, organizations can consolidate systems, expand the reach of their messages, and respond to emergencies to help keep people out of harm’s way. This post will cover the benefits and capabilities of a mass notification system and how it can assist with incident management by connecting to public safety answering points (PSAPs).

 

The Benefits of Mass Notification

If an incident occurs, organizations can’t afford to have anyone miss a message, but they don’t always have the means to ensure that critical information reaches everyone quickly. Some rely on mass SMS text messaging, but text messages can be easy to ignore, and when every second matters, organizations need to be able to leverage alerts that emphasize the urgency of a situation. Mass notification systems can help organizations deliver intrusive text, audio, and visual messages to a wide range of on-site and mobile devices simultaneously, eliminating the need to manage and send messages from multiple sources. This helps keep messaging consistent to reduce confusion, helps messages reach everyone in an organization regardless of where they are or what they doing, and helps highlight the seriousness of an event by broadcasting messages across multiple channels. This helps people receive messages quickly and begin taking action so they can stay safe.

 

Mass notification systems also enable organizations to target messages to specific groups or areas. This could be sending an alert specifically to the security team, or to a particular floor or wing of a building impacted by an event. This gives organizations more control over who receives what messages without disrupting operations for everyone.

 

Incident Management Capabilities

Of course, alerting people is only one component of responding to an emergency. Once initial notifications have gone out, organizations need to be able to bring about a successful resolution. Mass notification systems can help organizations plan for and address every stage of an emergency. Messages can be prebuilt for any kind of incident an organization may experience as well as messages for each step of the process, from the first notification to the “all clear” that signals normal operations can resume. Organization scan also upload critical resources like safety checklists, floorplans, and more that can be accessed during an emergency to help with a response. Notification scan be sent to key stakeholders inviting them to join a virtual collaboration space or conference call, so they can assess the situation as it unfolds and determine the best response. Notifications can even be sent that ask recipients to respond to questions, helping gain real-time insights to understand who is safe and who still needs assistance. With a single solution for emergency alerting and management, organizations can streamline their response.

 

Extending Reach to PSAPs

All of these capabilities are helpful when handling an internal incident, but sometimes critical situations require outside assistance. That’s where being able to reach a PSAP via a mass notification system becomes vital. Internal teams can receive alerts at the same time as first responders, reducing response times so help is delivered as quickly as possible. Safety regulations like Alyssa’s Law are making this capability a must as it helps spread awareness about serious events and get relevant information into the hands of first responders so they can coordinate an effective response.

 

Singlewire Software and RapidDeploy Integration

Singlewire Software now offers integration between its InformaCast mass notification and incident management software and RapidDeploy’s Radius Mapping platform to expand the reach of emergency messages directly to PSAPs. When InformaCast notifications are activated from tools like panic buttons, the notification will be delivered to local 911 agencies and can include location information about where the notification was activated, enhancing situational awareness, and expediting emergency response efforts.

As safety continues to be a priority for organizations across the country, having tools that work together and help with every stage of incident response become invaluable assets in keeping people safe.

02/27/2024
Partners
Mapping
Enhancing School Safety: Announcing RapidDeploy and Raptor Technologies Partnership to Streamline Emergency Response

The RapidDeploy team is proud to announce a pivotal integration between RapidDeploy and Raptor Technologies, a leading panic button provider for school safety, with integrated solutions for schools to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from any emergency.  With a legacy spanning over two decades, Raptor Technologies has been at the forefront of school safety, providing comprehensive software solutions that ensure the welfare of students and staff. In this new era of heightened security for schools across the United States, this partnership supports our commitment to safeguard children, schools and first responders with cutting-edge and innovative technology.

A Timely Alliance for Safety

Unfortunately, we are living in a time of increased threats to our schools where the landscape of challenges continues to evolve for educational institutions. By incorporating Raptor’s panic button alert system into our Next Gen 911 solutions, we are setting a new standard for emergency response times and efficiency.

Through this partnership, when a panic alert is activated within a school, critical emergency response data is instantly channeled to the appropriate 911 agencies through RapidDeploy’s Radius Mapping platform. Details such as the incident’s nature, the school's name, location coordinates and the initiator's contact information are shared—all within seconds.  This critical information is quickly and effectively communicated to first responders, providing help for those in need.

The Value of Our Partnership to Emergency Response Teams

RapidDeploy's partnership with Raptor Technologies provides PSAP’s a single pane of glass to visualize panic button events, geo-referenced to an agency's authoritative GIS data, along with:

·      Location of mobile callers while in motion

·      Plots of indoor floor plans

·      Situational awareness data such as aerial imagery

·      CCTV camera feeds to provide a comprehensive view of resources and the situation

Instant notifications and specific sound alerts within Radius ensure that responders are promptly alerted to Raptor panic button signals, even if their mobile devices are on silent mode. The integration also sends alerts based on location, which allows seamless switching between buildings or campuses without the need for reconfiguration, further streamlining emergency response operations.

By integrating Raptor Alert with Radius Mapping, our direct connection ensures that mission-critical data from Raptor Alert is delivered directly toECCs through RapidDeploy's Radius Mapping solution, enabling faster and more effective emergency response efforts. Raptor data will also be seamlessly integrated with RapidDeploy’s Lightning, our Next Gen 911 mobile app for field responders. This means that whether in the control room or on the ground, responders will have immediate access to vital information via their devices.

Legislative Support and Broader Impact

Our partnership with Raptor Technologies aligns with Alyssa's Law, critical legislation addressing the issue of law enforcement response time when a life-threatening emergency occurs, and drives a new safety standard in schools that supports the widespread adoption of panic button technology. As a result of legislative mandates, federal and state funding for school safety related products and services are available and becoming more readily accessible, ensuring schools are equipped to act quickly in emergencies, from lockdowns to evacuations.

Together, We Make a Difference

With this partnership announcement, we aim to empower faster and more effective emergency response and provide ECCs, telecommunicators and first responders with fast and accurate critical information to protect lives during school-related emergencies. For every student, teacher and parent, we're not just offering a solution, we’re moving towards a future where safety comes first, every time. When it comes to our schools and the people in them, every moment matters, and so does our response.

To learn more about how RapidDeploy and Raptor Technologies are revolutionizing school safety check out the full press release.

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